Friday, July 27, 2007

It's not that I'm not strong

A couple of weeks back my sister came along to our knitting group for the first time. I thought she would bring some little stitching or other creative project to work on. But she was keen to try knitting again (we both learned a bit as kids) so I handed her the felting wool I was going to work on - oh, never fear, I had another project with me - cast on a bunch of stitches and handed it over. She remembered the knit stitch pretty easily and off she went. She took it home with her and continued to knit, quickly finishing off the whole ball.

The next time she came to stitch n bitch I arrived late. She had been earlier to Big W to get more wool, Spidey had shown her a Russian join (now I'll have to get her to show ME sometime) and she was barrelling through another ball of wool. We're planning to make something felted out of the piece she has knitted.

She's been wanting to cast on again with a different yarn. I was supposed to show her while we were in Brisbane but somehow we didn't get to it. Yesterday she said over the phone that she might drop in to get me to show her. I said, great! I mentioned how there are knitters who go their whole lives not knowing how to cast on, and how silly that is, given that it is just "exactly like the knit stitch, except you don't throw off the old stitch, and you put the new one back on the left hand needle."

When she dropped in to see me an hour or so later, she had sucessfully cast on and knit a few rows on the new piece. Go Em! I went on to show her the slight variation that my grandmother taught me earlier this year, to get a neater cast on - putting the needle between two stitches instead of through one.

Now we'd better get her started on a proper project. I'm pretty sure she'll remember how to purl, with just a little encouragement. I haven't been that keen to suggest teaching someone else to knit - though I'm willing if a friend really wants to. My method has been to try stuff and make a lot of mistakes. I've enjoyed bumbling around a lot but I know not everyone is so patient. I think I feel that I would be responsible for someone I teach liking it, taking to it, and not getting bored. Looks very silly when I write it out like that. I don't need to take responsibility for anyone else' hobbies! And I'm happy to help someone as keen as my sis.